Page 6 - Natural Healing Secrets of Native Americans

Natural Healing Secrets of Native Americans

2 HISTORY

Long before Europeans set foot on the shores of North America, Indigenous tribes were thriving. Today,
there are only 560 federally recognized Tribal groups in the United States. To get an idea of how many
tribes existed around one thousand years ago, you can easily triple, or even quadruple, that number.

As history has demonstrated, one of the major contributors to the decline of the Native American
populations was disease brought by settlers to the regions in which they lived. Before the arrival of
settlers with their strange new diseases, Native Americans were quite efficient at healing themselves with
what nature gave them.

Each tribe was unique. They had their own religion, customs, and practices. Many tribes had a close
relationship with nature, believing it to be scared. They held the upmost respect for earth and the things
it provided. They believed that the bounty Mother Nature provided was to be shared. For countless
centuries, they learned what plants to use to heal a variety of conditions. They contributed so much to
what we know today about healing plants. In fact, many plants used for certain conditions have been
proven by science to contain compounds that indeed target these conditions.

In addition to passing on the knowledge of native healing plants, they also passed on other healing
traditions like a holistic approach to healing, the art of smudging, and healing through ceremony and
community practices. The wealth of knowledge amassed over the centuries may have been lost in some
aspects as tribes disappeared, but some knowledge was passed down (mostly through oral traditions) and
is still practiced today by certain Native American Tribes.

In this book, you will learn about some of the plants Native Americans used for healing, as well as other
healing traditions sacred to Indigenous people.

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